Portable coal tipple



Nov. 16 1926.

' 1,607,105 G, c. SINGER Y PORTABLE coAL TIPPLE y o'rigna'l Filed July 22 ,/1? 4 5 vsheets-sheet 1 Hmm; u

QSZQZ WITNEssI-:s

ATTORNEYS 1,607,105 G. c. SINGER v PORTABLE coAL TIPPLE:v

oginl Filed July 22. "1924, s sheets-sheet 2 l WITNESSES c v I Gral/er' C: 5eme); y 92% f ATTORNEYS Nov. 16 1926.

v G. c. SINGER PORTABLE 'QOAL TI-PPLL original liied July 22, 1924 s 'sheets-sheet s lNvENToR Grover'. Sdn Ger;

Patented Nov. 16, 1926.

' watios PiirieziarJ oFFicE..

' GRoviiR e. SINGER, or OAKLAND CITY, I Nimiivii PORTABLE COAL TIPPLE.

Original application led July 22, 1924, Serial No. 727,526. Divided and this application led October 12,

` 1925. Serial No. 62,158.

This invention relates in general to portable coal tipples especially designed for use with surface mining equipment, and more particularly to a conveyor oiganized with such autipple, the present application being a division of my co-pending application filed a rock constituting the overburden are stripped away or removed from the top of the coal by means of a large steam shovel and the coal is then dug up with a small steam shovel and thrown into small railway cars and hauled to a coal tipple, wherein it is graded or classified for shipment. n

; The present invention aims to obviate the necessity of providing the large and expensive stationary plant now used for grading or classifying the coal and also to obviate the necessity of the intermediate haul of the coal from the point at which the surface mining is being carried on to the point at which the tipple is located, the coal being graded or classified at the place where it is mined and being directly loaded into the cars utilized for shipping the same.

A further object is to provide a portable coal tipple which may be readily moved from place to place with the surface mining equipment as the mining operation progresses.

A still further object is to provide a portable coal ti ple of this character and in which the c assifying or grading and the loading operations are carried out continuously and in a novel and efficient manner.

Other objects and advantages of the invention reside in certain novel features of the construction, 'combination and. arrangement ofparts which will be hereinafter more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims', reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, and yin which: Figure 1 is a fragmentary diagrammatic view partly in side elevation and partly in vertical section, showing a portion yof an apparatusembodying the present invention. Figure 1a is a view similar to Figure 1 of an adjacent portion of the same apparatus. Figure 1b is' a view similar to Figures 1 andl 2, showing the remainingportion of the apparatus illustrated in vFigures 1 and 1a.

Figure 2 is a detail view in side elevation of one of the loading conveyors.

Figure 3 is a view thereof in transverse section on line 3 3 of Figure 2. Q Figure 4 isa fragmentary view in plan, illustrating the separate elevators and conveyo-rsfemployed for the nut and slack.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary -view in side elevation illustrating the manner of driving the shiftable loading conveyor.

y Referring to the drawings, it willbe understood that the present invention is designed for use with the usual surface mining equipment which' is well known to those skilled in the art and needs no detailed explanation. In .accordance with the usual practice after the overburden has been removed a single railway track 10 is laid on the coal to be dug up. Only the single track 10 -is employed for the reason that `it mustbe shifted about to permit the mining of all the coal. The present invention proposes in general the use of aportable coa'l tipple, designated generally at T which may be selfpropelled or which maybe moved about in any suitable manner on the track 10, and in conjunction with the tipple T a number of railway cars, designated at 11, 12, 13 and 14` are employed, the cars 11,-12, 13 and 14 being the ordinary cars used for tipping orv transporting the coal to the point of use or storage. The portable coal tipple T may not only be moved about on the track 10 during the mining operation in any particular locality but may also be moved from one locality to another, thereby avoiding the very serious loss resultingv from the abandonment or l wrecking of the large stationary plants now in use as well as'eliminating the expense of the' intermediate haul from the point` at which the coal -is mined to the stationary tipple. s f y The portable coal tipple T comprises a wheeledplatform 16 which may take the form of an ordinary railway car and which runs on the track l10. On one/ end of the? platform 16 a power plant 17 is. arranged and may utilize a steam boiler and an engine to drive the generator. employed for generating the electricity utilized to drive the various instrumentaliti-es of the tipple or an internal combustion engine may be employed for this purpose. It is also to be 1 understood that the wheeled platform 16 'may be self-propelled by means of suitable `electric motors or other means or may be hauled or drawn about as desired.

Adjacent the power plant 17 the wheeled platform 16 is provided with a hopper 18 into which the coal is ydumped as mined from the steam shovel S.I An elevator 19 isl p employed to carry the coal from the hopper vator 19 is of conventional construction and is electrically driven in accordance with the usual practice.

The shaker screens 20 constitute the means for classifying or grading the coal, and in the embodiment illustrated three shaker screens are employed and are arranged one above the other, there being a top screen, designated' generally at 23 forseparating the block coal from the egg, nut and slack, a middle screen 24 for separating the egg from the nut and-slack, and a bottom screen 25 for separating the nut from the slack.

The screen 23 Separates the block coal from all other sizes and delivers the block coal 'onto a loading conveyor designated generally at 41 and mounted for longitudinalmovement or adjustment on a boom fdesignated generally at The conveyor 41 isshown' to advantage in Figures 2 and 3 and comprises a main frame 57 and a pivoted section 58.' The main frame 57 includes fixed side bars 459 and the pivoted section 58 includes pivoted side bars ,60, and A thesel side` bars 59 and 60 ca rry rollers 61 'and 62 around which the conveyor element 63 runs. As shown tos advantage in Figure 2 the pivoted bars 60 are arranged 'axhacent one end-of the fixed bars 59 and are pivotally connected. .to .the inner -sides of these fixed bars.

' The inclination of the bars 60 with respect to thebars 59A is controlled by means of a cable 65 havi'ng one end -connected to the pivoted sections 58 and havin its otherfend wound about the winding trolled by an electric motor 67 mounted on the-'main frame 57. The endless conveyor element 63 maybe driven-in either direction' by means of an electric motor 68 andgearing 69 between the electric motor 68 and the end roller 70 over which the conveyor element 63 is trained.l

The conveyor 41 is mounted on Vthe boomrum 66 con-` 42 for longitudinal movement in either. direction by means of wheels 71 rotatably mounted on axles 72 carried bythe main frame 67 of the conveyor, the wheels 71 running on tracks 73 provided on the boom 42.

Means is employed forpositively moving the conveyor` 41 inl either direction along the tracks 73 and as shown to advantage in Figure 1 it may comprise a cable 74 havin@ one end connected as at to one end o the conveyor 41, the other end of the cable 74 being-wound on a winding drum 76 driven by an electric motor 77. Intermediate its ends the cable 74 is trained over guide sheaves 78. A second cable 79 is also pro- .vided and has one end connected as at to the end of the conveyor 41 opposite to the connection 75 of the cable 74, the other end of the cable 7 9'being reversely Wound on the drum 76 and the intermediate portion of the cable 79 being trained over `guide'sheaves- 81. With this arrangement wheny the winding drum 76 is rotated in one direction as for instance in a counter-clockwise direction, as viewed in Figure 3 the cable 74 will be wound on the drum 76and the cable 79 will be paid out whereby the` conveyor 41 'isv moved to the right as viewed in Figure 3. Rotation of the winding drum 76 in a clockwise direction causesl the cable 79 to be 4 wound on the drum 76 andthe cable 74 to be paid ,out and consequently result in the movement of the conveyor 41 to the left, as viewed in Figure 1. By virtue of this movement and control4 of the' conveyor 41' the block coal which slides onto the conveyor may be loaded into 'the cai' 12 along the entire length of the car, and as lthe, -swinging section 58 may be moved upwardly or downwardly within limits the level at which the block coal is delivered to the ca r 12 may be varied.

The egg, nut and slack fall through the perforations 28 of the screening element 27 of the shaker screen 23 onto the screening element 85 of the shaker screen 24,- the-saidv shaker screen24 being disposedimmediately below the shaker lscreen 23. The s creen 24 separates the egg coal from the nut and slack and delivers the egg coal onto a loading conveyor designated generally at 91. The conveyor 91 is identical in construction with the conveyor 41 and is mounted on the boom and driven and controlled in exactly the same manner as the conveyor 41, the conveyor 91 serving to load the car 11 with egg coal.

The nut and slack coal which fall through the openings 8 7 of the screening element 86 drop onto the shaker screen 25. The screen y25 separates the slack from the nut and delivers them to individual compartmelits in the wheeled platform from which they are carried` by elevators presently to be de,-

' tipple 'Serial No. 727,526.

cables' 114 reversel scribed. -For a full and complete illustration f the screens`23, 24 and 25 and of the in general, reference is made to my co-pending application led July ,22, 1924,

An elevator 101 carries the nut coal from.

the compartment 98 up onto a'conveyor 102 carried by the boom4 along one side of the top thereof'. Similarly an elevator 103 earries the slack from the compartment 100 up to a conveyor 104 providedalong the top of the boom 42 on the opposite side of the boom from the conveyor 102, as Shownl to advantage in Figure 4. A

The conveyor 102 delivers the nut coal into the car 14, and this carl 14 being the end car may be shifted to load the car throughout its length. Of course, if found y desirable, a travelling conveyor, similar to the conveyors 41 and 91, may be employed on the boom in conjunction with the con-.-

veyor 102 if found desirable. Moreover lateral chutes or conveyors may be employed vby simply reversing the electric motor 111 which drives the conveyor 110 through gearing 1-12. y The conveyor 110 is shifted longitudinally in either direction 'by means of a ingtoriactuated drum 113 and a pair of Wound on said-drum and connected to t e opposite ends of the frame of the conveyor 110, the intermediate portions of the cable 114 being trained over v Aguide sheaves 115. By shifting the conveyor A 110 longitudinally and driving the -conveyor so as to cause it to deliver the slack coal first from one end and then from the other the car 13 may be loaded for its ent-ire length.

With this arrangement the coal is taken as i it is mined and at the place where it ismined and is graded or classified and the classified products are immediately laded into individual cars ready for Shipment to the point of use or storage. In this manner the intermediate haul' of the coal as mined from the-point at which it -is mined tothe stationary plant at' which it is graded is eliminated. Moreover 'the coal is directly.

loaded after the grading in such a novel and eiiicient manner'as to occasion a minimum of handling and so as to permit'ocontinuous operation. The-se advantages are had andl at the saine time a portable tipple is provided which may be readily moved from place to place during the mining operation and from one locality to another. What I claim is:-

In al portable coal tipple of the character described, a boom havingjracks, a conveyor having a main frame including side bars said side bars being provided with wheelsl V running on the track whereby; the conveyor is mounted for longitudinal adjustment on the boom, means for shifting the conveyor on the boomin either direction, said conveyor having a vertically swingable section v including side bars'having their inner ends pivotallyl connected to the side barsl of the main frame, means for' controlling the swinging movement of said pivoted section' including a motor actuated winding drum` i mounted on the main frame of the conveyorand movable therewith, and a cable Wound on the drum and connected to 'the outer end of the pivoted section. y

. GROVER C. SINGER. 

